Links are frequently placed in edit summaries but the user is currently perversely required to revert to wikicode to insert them. The VisEd menu should be available for the edit summary and the text should be displayed as it will be seen. Wysiwyg should apply to all elements of the edit summary (eg, the recently added section title is displayed as code rather than the grey italics as it will be seen).
Potential use cases/impacts/hypotheses
- [potential impact]: if people publishing edits write more expressive edit summaries, these edit summaries will be compelling/interesting to people whose primarily relationship to Wikipedia is as as a reader
- [potential use case]: enable people to relate edits to the events/campaigns that inspired them to make them (T373232)
- Inspired @AlexHollender-WMF and @ifried...
- [hypothesis] If people have an easier time doing things like mentioning other people, inserting links, and formatting text within the edit summary input, they will invest more effort into writing edit summaries.
- [potential impact] If people write more descriptive edit summaries, then machine learning models will become more effecting at learning from the actions volunteers are taking because these models will have to make fewer inferences/assumptions about the semantic meaning of a change/changes someone is making. This thought is inspired by the conversation we (the Editing Team) had with @diego on 27 July 2022.
- [potential impact] If people write more descriptive edit summaries, then people visiting an article's "page history" will have an easier time: A) understanding how the article they are interested in evolved over time and B) identifying changes they are curious to learn more about
- this could also open up the potential for edits/diffs being presented as small, standalone pieces of information people could "consume"
- [potential use case] linking to policies that are violated when reverting an edit. many editors do this in an ad-hoc way but providing a bit more structure for this would be great
- [potential use case] asking other editors for feedback on the edit, so the editor can learn how they can improve as an editor (such as: share feedback on my user talk page, share feedback with me via email)
- potential use case]: enable communities to author Checks that act on edit summaries.
- Context: this idea in response to a recommendation in Counter-Misinformation Dynamics: The Case of Wikipedia Editing Communities during the 2024 US Presidential Elections: "Misinformation often stems from edits with vague or absent edit summaries. To mitigate this, Wikimedia communities should enforce stricter guidelines for edit descriptions, requiring contributors to provide detailed and transparent explanations for changes, especially on politically sensitive pages.//
- Thank you to @Samwalton9-WMF for drawing my attention to this
- Context: this idea in response to a recommendation in Counter-Misinformation Dynamics: The Case of Wikipedia Editing Communities during the 2024 US Presidential Elections: "Misinformation often stems from edits with vague or absent edit summaries. To mitigate this, Wikimedia communities should enforce stricter guidelines for edit descriptions, requiring contributors to provide detailed and transparent explanations for changes, especially on politically sensitive pages.//
- [potential use case] requesting re-assessment of article status after improvements made (for example, see requests for re-assessment within Wikiproject Film)
